Inferno (1953)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

To me, this movie is perfection.

How sad is this?

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

"Inferno" is a film with a very simple plot. Despite this, it was given top treatment by improved sound AND 3D! And, as you watch, you can see in quite a few places that 3D gimmicks would abound...but it's still basically a good film.When the film begins, a rich man is injured in the desert and his unfaithful wife and her lover decide to leave him there to die of exposure. The problem is that Donald (Robert Ryan) is a very tough guy and he's determined to not only survive but last long enough to exact revenge. Fortunately, where the movie goes next is a bit unusual and yet satisfying.Much of the film consists of Donald talking to himself by having Ryan do voiceovers. This is risky but the director manages to make it work...and the film manages to take a very simple story yet make it worth your time.

"Inferno" is arguably the best live-action 3D movie ever made, the one you pull out to show just how great 3D can be. The sense of depth is startling; you actually feel you're standing outdoors.Though virtually every 3D cliché is trotted out -- especially throwing things at the camera -- they're done so well they enhance the picture, rather than provoking an "Oh, brother" reaction.Other technical aspects deserve praise. The fight between Carson and Duncan in Elby's shack has spectacularly realistic fire. Modern films use discrete fire cannons (I don't know the right name) that periodically belch flame in an annoyingly obvious way. Here the walls, floor, and roof actually appear to be on fire! Indeed, this night sequence is so well photographed that it shows Lucien Ballard's great talent as a cinematographer.The problem with "Inferno" is its flabby story. It breaks the most-basic rule of storytelling -- "Show us, don't tell us". A mere five minutes at the beginning would have revealed what sort of a self-centered jerk Carson is, and provided some sympathy for his murderers. Instead, we are forced to hear Carson described by others, which slows things down. And Carson is given too much voice-over narrative, when we can plainly see what he's doing.Roy Baker helmed a number of memorable films ("Don't Bother to Knock", "A Night to Remember", "Quatermass and the Pit"), but "Inferno" has all the tension of a broken violin string. Though the plodding story is mostly the fault of the script, Baker doesn't do anything to help it along. Nor does Paul Sawtell's hackneyed music.If you have a 3D video system, you might want to search for "Inferno". (My copy appears to have been the last one in the US.) As a 3D demo disk, it is non-pareil.

****SPOILERS**** Left alone in the desert with a broken leg millionaire Donald Carson, Robert Ryan, chances of survival are almost nil with his scheming employee and wife Joseph Duncen & Geraldine, Willian Lundigan & Ronda Fleming, purposely letting him die of exposer. By not reporting his whereabouts to the police and sending them on a wild goose chase some 70 in the other direction from where Carson is.Were not really told if Carson's accident was planned by Duncan & Geraldine or was a golden opportunity that they both took advantage of. Still it gave the two the excuse to have Carson put out of their lives and take over his multi-million dollar investment empire. When he's eventually found dead with them getting off Scot-free by letting the broiling and inhospitable desert do their dirty work.In the desert with little food and water Carson at first about gave up on surviving. Later as he became more and more outraged by what his wife and her lover did to him his anger drove Carson to bring himself back almost from the dead to have his revenge on them.Back home Geraldine and Duncan live it up in Carson's mansion expecting any day now to hear the news that he was found dead in the desert. But the longer they wait the more they become curious and fearful that Carson may have, just may have, survived! That would mean 10 to 15 years behind bars not the life of luxury that they were both looking forward to.Penetrating story about crime and punishment with an amazing twist ending that turns the tables on Carson's would-be murders. With an inferno that's hotter and more deadlier then the worst desert heat wave. Robert Rayn as the millionaire businessman Donald Whitley Carson III who's always used to having things done for him is driven to do things for himself. As he tries to get back to civilization and get even with those who left him for dead in the desert. Getting help from an old desert prospector Sam Elby, Henry Hull,as Carson tracked by both Duncan and Geraline who came back to the scene of the crime to see if Carson was really dead and if not finish the job by making sure that he is. Carson attacked by Duncan in Elby's cabin, after Duncan knocked out the old man, has it out with him as the place goes up in flames from the carnage that resulted. Geraldine who tried to double-cross her lover Duncan by leaving him out in the desert, like she did to her husband Donald Carson, gets side tracked when the car she was to make her getaway hit a sharp bolder ripping up the gas-tank causing it, the liquid, to flood and damage the drive shaft immobilizing it . The movie comes full circle when Geraldine is left alone in the desert and of all people her husband Donald Carson, whom she tried to murder, came driving along the wind swept and deserted desert road, with old man Elby, to give her a lift back home for a long stretch in the State penitentiary.

I saw this movie years ago and thought it was wonderful. An exceptional story and exceptional cast. I keep hoping some day the movie industry will put in for sale on DVD.There have been so many movies put on DVD that were no where near as good as this one,I don't understand the rational of which movies are brought to DVD and those that are't.Small cast of husband left for dead and greedy wife and her boyfriend keep returning to the desert hopefully to find a body but husband fights against the odds. With no water, may etc, uses his ingenuity to stay alive.All ends well, greedy wife and her boyfriend gets this their just deserts.Husband survives against terrible odds.